EAGLE-OWL AWARDS
Garth Batchelor
An early interest in birds led Garth (above) to study for a BSc at the University of Natal at Pietermaritzburg before moving to the Transvaal, where he gained his MSc and Ph.D. Initially a fisheries scientist, he later became an environmental planner and was responsible for the expansion and establishment of several reserves. One of these, Verloren Vallei near Dullstroom, became a significant refuge for Wattled Cranes. Latterly Garth has led the Crowned Eagle Working Group, which promotes the conservation of this species by surveying breeding efforts within a core 100-kilometer radius of Mbombela. Group members locate Crowned Eagle nests, monitor their productivity and work with landowners to mitigate threats to the birds. Since monitoring began in 2005, 69 Crowned Eagle nests have been located and 42 are currently under surveillance.
Italtile & Ceramic Foundation
Several of BirdLife South Africa's programmes have benefited from the generosity of the Italtile & Ceramic Foundation (above, right). It initially supported the Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas Programme for a number of years and is now providing funding for the position of manager of the Empowering People Programme and the Environmental Education & Awareness project in northern KwaZulu-Natal. This project has been the catalyst for the growth of the programme's activities, including the development of other projects at Ntsikeni, southern KwaZulu-Natal, and Daggakraal, near Wakkerstroom, which are important for the Critically Endangered White-winged Flufftail and Endangered Botha's Lark respectively. The Italtile & Ceramic Foundation also supports BirdLife South Africa's Community Bird Guides by sponsoring a Wilderness Leadership School Entrepreneur course for some of the guides.
OWL AWARDS
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
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The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
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How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
